More Than a Game
by Jacob Rickshaw
Summary: They say the first is always the worst. Sadly, it was true. After his first murder, Shaw found himself consumed with a bloodlust thinly disguised as a desire to protect the other players. The result? The loss of everything he held dear. This is not a story of misunderstanding, nor redemption. This is a story about a villain, his path, and its ultimately tragic conclusion.
1. Sword Art Online

-:-:-:-:-:-

A huge castle made of stone and steel floating in an endless sky.

That was all this world was.

It took a vagarious group of craftsmen one month to survey the place; the diameter of the base floor was about 10 kilometers — large enough to fit the entirety of Setagaya-ku within. Above, there were 100 floors stacking straight upwards; its sheer size was unbelievable. It was impossible to even guess how much data it consisted of.

Inside, there were a couple of large cities along with countless small scale towns and villages, forests and plains, and even lakes. Only one stairway linked each floor to another, and the stairways existed in dungeons where large numbers of monsters roamed; so discovering and getting through was no easy matter. However, once someone made a breakthrough and arrived at a city of the upper floor, the «Teleport Gates» there and of every cities in the lower floors would be connected making it possible for anyone to move freely through these levels.

With these conditions, the huge castle had been steadily conquered for two years. The current front line is the 74th floor.

The name of the castle was «Aincrad», a world of battles with swords that continued floating and had engulfed approximately six thousand people. Otherwise known as...

«Sword Art Online»

-:-:-:-:-:-

**Sometime in November, 2024  
>Timestamp: 15:00 (3:00 PM)<br>SAO Service Date: 711**

A silver blade flashed through the air, cutting into my enemy's side.

The thin line above his head dropped significantly. Simultaneously, a shadow of fear crossed his face, and I pressed my lips together into a thin line.

The red line – dubbed the "HP bar" – was a measurement of a person's life force. Over 90 percent was gone, colored a dark gray. No, that wasn't right. More like, now, only 10 percent of his HP separated him from his inevitable death.

He stumbled back, losing his balance and crying out in mock pain. He looked at me, clutching at his side. "Please, don't do this!"

"Hmm…" I responded, flicking my blade as if to remove blood from it.

I took a short, deep breath. The body I used in this world had no need to breathe oxygen, but the body in the real world, the one on the other side, would definitely be breathing heavily. My hands would be shaking and sweaty, my heartbeat likely accelerated to dangerous levels.

Of course.

Though everything I saw before me was simply a rendered 3D virtual reality, and the red bar above my enemy – along with the blue one in the top corner of my vision – was nothing more than a mass volume of 1's and 0's representing hit points, the fact that this fight would end with one of us dead did not change.

I found this quite fair, as I thought about it. The enemy before me – a young man wearing a hybrid of leather and metal armor and holding a long spear – was another human being just like me, and he had been given the same amount of time as I had to grow in skill and strength. If he had wisely focused on advancing himself in this world instead of merely acting as if this were some game to be played, than he might have provided a challenge for me, proving who would be deserving to be called a survivor of this death game.

Sadly, this was not meant to be the case. He had not dedicated himself to such survival, and as a result I had landed dozens of strikes on him, and he had yet to land a direct blow on me. Minor cuts and scratches, yes, but nothing serious. I was, in the sense of survival skill and drive, far superior to him.

"Where's you're fighting spirit?" I asked, slowly walking towards my quarry, dragging my sword along the stone path. "This is to make you stronger: conquer this challenge, or fall prey to it."

I doubt he paid attention to my words, however. He was busy shakily holding his glorified pole in front of him, hoping to use it to block my next attack; delay his ultimate demise momentarily. If he hoped to respawn after his defeat he was sorely mistaken. This would prove to be his end, one from which he would never return.

It's reality. Everything in this world is real. There's no virtual reality or fakes of any kind.

I lifted my sword and placed it next to my left hip, holding it as if I were drawing it from a sheath. My left hand gently moved along the flat of the silver metal, feeling its cold surface against my skin.

The young poleman widened his legs and brought the pointed end of his weapon towards himself while extending the other end away. For a second, the wind quieted and the sound of humming energy filled the air.

"Aaaargh!" With a shout the man slashed from right to left, the higher hand releasing the weapon to allow it to extend far beyond the normal reach, its trajectory lit with a light-blue light. This was the powerful one-hit sword skill for the polearm Reaching Arc. It was a powerful swipe that covered a 3 meter radius in the shape of a forward half-circle in just under .3 seconds.

Yet, I had expected such a bold move from my cornered prey.

I jumped in the air, remembering a technique from when I used to high-jump to bring my legs at the same level as my head. The rod passed nearly a few centimeters beneath me. I could see the horror on his face as he saw what must have seemed to be an expert dodge.

It was nothing more than simply reading and reacting to my opponent.

I landed on my feet and drew myself to my full height nearly a meter from him. Our eyes locked for a moment before a small smile tugged at the corner of my lips.

"It's showtime."

My own blade began to glow a deep blue. As if it had a mind of its own, it immediately began a diagonal arc from its initial point in an upward-right direction without any input from me. The sword easily cut through my enemies defenses, scattering a bright red light instead of blood. I heard the man's choke as his eyes widened in surprise at his wound.

This is the most important element in battles in this world: Sword Skills.

The blade continued its path through his body, finally exiting his shoulder and flashing through the air, leaving a blue trail in the air. The arc flashed quickly before scattering – The basic one-hit skill, Slant.

The glow from the swing slowly faded away. At the same time, the last portion of the man's HP bar dropped from view, leaving without a single trace. His body seemed frozen in his standing state, his arm limply hanging onto his polearm, his face twisted into a painful expression.

Suddenly, he dropped his weapon and fell forwards, almost crashing onto the grassy ground before some unseen force stopped gravity's effect on him. With the sound of breaking glass, he shattered into a plethora of glowing polygons and disappeared.

This is the Death of this world. Instantaneous and short, a complete annihilation, leaving absolutely no trace behind.

I barely even registered the experience points and items I'd won being displayed in purple font in the center of my vision. I turned to the dissipating crystals of light and spat at them. "Weak."

With a short flair, I sheathed my blade in the scabbard at my hip. I stumbled back a step before falling onto my knees.

I shakily sucked in a breath and closed my eyes. My head throbbed, my chest tightened, my arms and legs shook. Most likely at the prospect that I just killed a man in cold blood. I shook my head a few times and opened my eyes.

The digital clock in the bottom right of my vision told me it was some time past 3PM. _I need get out of the field soon if I want to make it home by nightfall._

"Maybe I should just stay here…" I thought aloud. Nobody was around to listen, however. The only one who would have been had just been permanently deleted by the system. I slowly stood up, stumbling but catching myself before I fell over.

I was done fighting for today. I had delivered another into the hand of death today, a prospect I didn't want to linger on. After a fitful night's sleep, tomorrow would come, and bring with it many similar battles. When fighting battles against both monsters and humans, you never had a 100% chance of survival, no matter how many safety nets you put up. Someday, you would fall out of lady luck's favor.

The question was whether I'd be able to keep drawing a good hand in this game with Death.

If you valued your life above all else, staying in a town and waiting for somebody to clear the game is the wisest route to take. But I didn't want to live the life of a coward who did such. It was why I came out into the fields every day alone, slowly making my way towards the front lines. It was why I was entirely willing to murder other players I came across in a contest to prove who was stronger.

It was why I was fine with the fact that, under my long-sleeved coat, there was an open black coffin with a smiling face on the front and a skeletal arm peeking out.

As I began to walk towards the edge of the field with a somber expression on my face, I began to think back to that day, two years ago.

The moment that my world ended, and a murderer's began.

-:-:-:-:-:-

* * *

><p><strong>AN Time!<strong>

**So just a heads up, these first three chapters are not necessarily accurate representations of the "Hero" you will read about for most of the story. These are more like points on a line: enough so that you can start to see where a trend is heading. Current "Hero" is harsh and cruel, though its a mantle he's not entirely comfortable in. Following to chapters will be, like in the LN, showing a younger "Hero" who acts more happy, with muted aspects that will develop into the person he is later. Pay attention!**

**RETROACTIVE EDIT:**

**For those who thought I was dead... Surprise! The afterlife has wifi! I don't plan AT ALL to update regularly, but I've decided that I need to get back into the writing habit I had with my Lucifer: Rising series (aka wrote-a-chapter-a-day), and More Than A Game made the roster for it. So chapters will begin to appear again, hopefully soon.**


	2. The World of Swords

**Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!**

**This chapter has a bit of exposition, so please bear with me through it. Also, new characters (kinda)! Hooray!**

**So, without further ado, welcome to the next chapter of _More Than a Game_!**

* * *

><p>-:-:-:-:-:-<p>

**November 6, 2022  
><strong>**Timestamp: 17:00 (5:00 PM)  
>SAO Service Date: 1<strong>

"Hiyaa!" My sword, in tandem with my heroic shout, sliced through the air with a loud hum. Almost immediately afterwards, the grey wolf which had been attacking me was knocked back, squealing in pain. As soon as it had regained its footing, it pawed at the ground and charged fiercely at me. I laughed as I dodged out of the way and batted it to the side with the flat of my blade.

"Alright, come here puppy!" shouted another man, who happened to be near where the wolf had stopped. The animal's eyes gleamed red and targeted the new aggressor almost immediately, pawing the ground in preparation for another charge.

"Ha-ha!" he said, dodging the attack. "These animals aren't the brightest, are they, Shaw?"

I shook my head. "No, Daruku, they aren't." Daruku spun his sword in his fingers before widening his legs and drawing his blade back. It began to glow a soft blue color as the sword skill charged.

I'd met this person, whose short brown hair fell around their face and wore simple leather armor over his skinny frame, only a few hours ago. I was part of an American experiment testing how extended periods of time within the virtual reality affected the human mind. They purchased a «NerveGear» helmet, set up a lab similar to a hospital room for a coma patient, and hired me part-time as the guinea pig. Since I was the one going in, the research company had allowed me to choose any program I wanted for use in the experiment. I chose the only VRMMORPG available at the time, «Sword Art Online». Of course, since it was a Japanese game, on Japanese servers, I needed someone to help me ease into the culture during my extended sessions. In response, Daruku, as I was told was his in-game name, had offered to help. He was not only bi-lingual, but had lived extended periods in both countries. Also, he was a pretty good VR gamer, so that was a plus.

His blade slashed through the air, bringing the HP of the wolf down into the yellow. I grabbed a pebble near my foot and raised it above my shoulder. As soon as the system detected the first motion of the sword skill, the pebble began to give off a green light. After that, my hand moved by itself and the stone, like a speeding bullet, smacked into the wolf's flank. It whined before quickly turning to me.

"I'm surprised we've made it this far without dying." I wondered aloud, dodging the canine's lunge. "Usually my hunting tactics aren't as beneficial HP wise as people would like."

Daruku shrugged. "I like the idea. Fighting monsters that are a higher level than you, resulting in more XP and Col, but at the risk of losing more health." I kicked the wolf towards him, redirecting the monster's agro. "Though, double-teaming enemies makes it a lot safer than if we were solo." He slashed a few times, ignoring the sword skills for the speed of doing free-move attacks.

Like Daruku said, the wolf, which was officially called «Dire Wolf» was a level four monster, while we were almost level three's. Surprisingly, however, neither of us had lost that more than half of our health, as constantly switching who had the enemy's agro made it difficult for the monster to fight us properly.

Even if we did die, we'd just be teleported back to the «Starting City». However, I didn't want to have to walk the few kilometers between the village and this hunting ground again if I didn't have to.

Focusing back on the fight, I saw that the wolf was on the verge of losing all its HP. "You can have this one." I told him.

"Thanks!" He smiled at me before facing the wolf head on. It seemed to feel the battle coming to an end, too, as it pawed at the ground in preparation to pounce. Daruku smirked before hefting his blade onto his shoulder, letting it begin to glow a solid blue light. Just as the wolf leaped, the glowing blade slashed downwards, leaving an ethereal blue trail behind it. For a moment, it seemed like Daruku's sword skill «Vertical» had missed as the canine's teeth rapidly moved closer to him. However, just as they were about to reach his face, the wolf's body stopped moving and shattered like glass.

Purple numbers appeared in my vision displaying how much experience I'd earned. I looked in the top corner of my screen to see that I was now a level three. "Yes!" I shouted, pumping my fist. "Level up!"

Daruku moved over to me. "You too? Good job!" We hi-fived in celebration as we sheathed our swords.

I looked back to where the wolf had died, a sad smile on my face. "You know, fighting mobs is fun and all, but I thought it be more thrilling." I turned back to Daruku, who merely nodded in response. "I mean, don't get me wrong, SAO is a great VR game, and it's really cool fighting with your own muscles and all, but it's just not as exciting as I thought it'd be. I thought I'd feel more of an adrenaline rush because it's so real, but it's just like most normal RPG's I play: fight the monsters, get loot, if you die you can just respawn with all your items back in your inventory. I guess because I know it's all fake and there's no consequence for dying, it's not as exciting as, say, a perma-death game."

Daruku stayed silent for a moment, thinking over what I'd just said. Finally, he looked at me, his face entirely serious. "You think too much." He then proceeded to pat me on the back. And by pat, I mean smack. I lost my balance as he followed up with "Just enjoy the game while you're stuck here for the next three days, and maybe you'll come to like it."

_Three whole days in an MMO._ I had forgotten about that. The researchers had wanted me to start off playing for three days, to test what the majority of hardcore VR gamers experienced on a daily basis. If I did well after coming out, they'd increase the session length the next time I came in for the experiment. Later on, they planned to increase it to a maximum of fourteen days at a time within the VR world housed within the Japanese «Nerve Gear» helmet console.

"Hey, don't get that look on your face!" Daruku commanded, snapping me back to reality. His voice sounded just like a typical anime hero's, though whether that was because he actually sounded like that or he used a voice mod when creating his character, I didn't know. Whatever the reason, the voice had that kind of power and pep behind it that caught your attention immediately.

He rubbed one hand against his chin, giving me a hard stare. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers. "I know how to cheer you up! How does a duel sound to you?"

I shook my head. "Nah, you can only go until the first strike hits, or you bring their HP down to half. Not as exciting or adrenaline-rush as a fight to the death."

Daruku made a strange "Ahh" sound from his throat before lifting a finger into the air. "But you forget, there's still Total Loss mode."

I tilted my head to the side. "Total Loss mode?"

"Total Loss mode!" he exclaimed. "The duel ends when one opponent's HP reaches zero! Actually causes character death and teleports the loser back to the «Starting City». The loser even drops a few items and Col. It's perfect for you!" He smirked as he waited for my reaction.

If I were to participate in a Total Loss duel, then there were a few good things about it. Death carried a little weight, as you could potentially lose some important items and cash. Also, it meant that the opponent couldn't be fooled as easily as an AI, and would definitely be more interesting to fight. As I thought about it more, I realized that it was actually a pretty good idea. Maybe PvP would end up finally giving me the thrill I'd been looking for.

"Alright," I said, sheathing my blade. "So, how are we going to do this?"

Daruku scratched the back of his head. "Well, I'd offer to fight you, but I really don't want to take the trip back here from the spawn point." He scanned the field for a moment, continuing to speak. "We could just wait for somebody to come by and then request a duel. That'd probably be the fastest and easiest way to do it."

It was settled, then. We found a nearby tree and sat under it, waiting for somebody to walk by. It gave me some time to look around and enjoy the view. The lush, grassy plain had just started to tint red in the setting sunlight. Out west, a deep forest stood, a wide lake to the east, and large mountains sat to the north. To the south, the plain we currently inhabited stretched for some time before running into another area filled with trees. We were at the plains between the forest and lake regions north of the «Starting City», which was located at the southern end of the gigantic floating caste «Aincrad». Across the map should be hundreds, if not thousands, of other players doing the exact same thing we were. But, because we were dumb enough to go into an area above our level, and because of the sheer size of the floor, none of them were in the immediate vicinity.

I whistled, getting Daruku's attention. "Still, I can't deny that I find it amazing that all this is inside a videogame, and at such detail."

My partner shrugged. "It's nothing special. It's just the brain seeing and hearing the signals the «Nerve Gear» is sending to it. Servers hold all the data, and send it to our hardware. It converts the data into electronic signals before launching that into our heads. The brain analyzes, recognizes, and interprets the data as sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. We respond, our brains create neural impulses for the hardware to pick up, and the hardware uses more signals to stop and convert the impulses before sending them back to the server. It happens over fiber-optic, fast as light, and occurs millions of times a second. It's modern technology; science, not magic."

"How many VR games have you played?" I asked with a frown.

"Five."

"And were you or were you not part of the SAO beta?"

"I may have been involved a little bit."

"And you expect me, a first time «FullDive» user, to be as cynical as you?"

"Not on the first day, no. Tomorrow, maybe, but not today."

I sighed. "I can tell you're going to be trouble."

"Maybe, maybe not. All depends on how well you act."

"You're going to be _lots_ of trouble, then."

We both chuckled. It was nice to have someone else to play with. As long as I could remember, I'd always been a solo player. Be it MMO's, RPG's, or shooters, I preferred to be alone. Adding in other people or even NPC's on my team never sat well with me. They were out of my control, "unknown variables."

Now that I was "forced" to be with someone, I wondered why I'd been so opposed to parties/squads/teams in the first place. It was fun to have someone to talk to, to share the enjoyment of the game with. So why was I so hesitant when I played other games?

A short, quiet chime interrupted my train of thought. A ways away, a green cursor appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. My «Searching» skill had detected another player moving towards us.

I leaned over to Daruku. "We've got company."

He nodded. "Let's see if we can flag them down." He began running towards the cursor, and I was on his heels not a moment later. "Hey! Hey!" He began to shout, waving to get their attention.

It worked. As I drew nearer, I saw that the player was a girl. She stood a bit shorter than me, maybe 160 centimeters tall. Her brown hair was cut to jaw-length, and she had brilliantly blue eyes. She was slim and had light-colored skin. In fact, she reminded me of an actress I had seen in a play. I think it was Macbeth, or maybe Romeo and Juliet? Whatever it was, she looked like she'd just stepped out of some fantastical tale of romantic adventure.

However, I knew that it wasn't how she really looked. It was just an avatar that she'd made a few hours ago when she first installed SAO onto her Nerve Gear device. I was almost the same, except that I had just clicked the "randomize" button a few times until I got something skinny and edited the height to be equal to mine. I looked decent, neither ugly nor handsome.

My reverie ended when she said something. At first, I thought I'd misheard her, but then I realized that she was probably speaking in Japanese. Now was when I was beginning to regret not spending more time trying to learn the language beforehand.

"Um, Daruku, can you deal with her for a moment?" I asked, swiping my index finger and thumb downwards, causing bells to chime and bringing a holographic menu into vision. "My translator's off, and I need to activate it."

Daruku nodded, a smile on his lips. "Don't worry, partner. I've got this all taken care of!" He turned to the girl and said something in Japanese. She seemed to light up for a moment before quickly responding, her speech speeding up a bit.

I navigated through the options menu until I found the "Language" option. I tapped the button and slid the "Use Language Engine" slider to the "on" position.

Suddenly, the conversation between Daruku and the new girl changed from a foreign language to something I could understand. "-at's why we're in this area. It really helps with leveling." Daruku said.

"Oh, really!" the girl's voice was high and excited. "I've always fought so high because I liked the challenge, I never really noticed any extra experience or Col before."

"It _is_ standard game logic." I said, closing the menu and joining in the conversation.

The girl's eyes widened and she looked at Daruku. "I thought you said he couldn't speak Japanese."

Daruku chuckled. "He can't," was his answer. His voice sounded slightly different from before, a bit of distortion in his speech.

"But then what was…?" She turned to me again, a look of confusion on her face.

I shrugged. "He's right, I can't speak Japanese to save my life." Her head tilted in further confusion. "But, the game's «Language Engine» helps me overcome that." I explained. "Typically, it's used to help NPC's understand what players are trying to say in order to make the game feel more alive, but it can also be used to help those who speak different languages understand each other. It takes each word you want to say, interprets its meaning, then converts it to the language the hearer selected when setting up the game. Mine's set to English, and yours is set to Japanese, so the Engine is converting my English speech into Japanese, and your Japanese into English."

"Ooooh." I could almost see the gears in her head turning as they tried to process everything that I'd just said. I sure hoped I made sense, as I couldn't really tell what the Engine converted my speech into. I tended to ramble, and having a computer translate my rambling for me had a chance of proving disastrous.

"Well, then," she said, seeming to have understood what I said. Or having disregarded it as nonsense. Dammit, I hope it's not the second one. "What did you want to ask me, again?" She directed the question towards me.

"Ah, I was wondering if you'd like to duel me!" I put on a big grin before crossing my arms over my chest. "I got bored of fighting monsters, so I thought a duel would be a bit more exciting."

For a moment, it looked like something flashed over her eyes, but it was gone so fast that I couldn't be sure. "A duel? As in, you and I, fighting to the death?"

"Yep. Also, the winner gets whatever the loser drops after they die, along with any XP and Col the system gives them."

There was that flash again. She brought up a menu and manipulated the options for a moment. Suddenly, a screen flashed before my eyes. "Duel Request," it said at the top in big, purple letters.

I looked over the top of the box at the girl before me. There was something there, something akin to anticipation. No, maybe… eagerness? "I'm in," was all she said.

I selected «Total Loss» mode before accepting the request. The menu closed in on itself, disappearing from my sight. Replacing it was a counter slowly ticking downwards. _60… 59… 58…._

Daruku patted me on the back, startling me. "Well, looks like she's a bit eager to get a piece of you, isn't she?" Crap, I'd almost forgot he was even here. "Don't worry, you'll do fine!" He must have mistook the guilty look on my face for anxiety. Curse my easily readable emotions!

"I know." I drew my blade and looked at the girl who stood across from me. Above her head, a health bar appeared, around seventy five percent full, along with the word "Ferra." I settled into a stance, blade behind me facing the ground, shoulder towards my opponent.

As I watched the counter tick down, a feeling of excitement and nervousness filled my stomach. For a moment, I once again considered why I was doing this. As I thought about it, this was just another battle, no different from those against the NPC's, right? The loser wouldn't suffer any drastic consequences, and after this we would go our separate ways, the fight meaning little to nothing between us. So why was I so excited about fighting another «enemy» this game threw at me?

No, that wasn't it. I guess that, deep down, I understood that the digital construct before me was more than just an enemy. Behind the polygonal avatar before me was a living, breathing person. She had hopes, dreams, and desires. She was a human being, like me. And I was going to fight her… No, I was going to kill her.

The corner of my lip pulled upwards at the thought. Yes, that was it. I was going to kill her, another person. Through my sword, I was going to prove just who it was that was stronger. I was going to prove who deserved to keep moving forward, unscathed. I was going to prove that I was superior.

I paused for a second. Where had those thoughts come from? It didn't fit my normal, easy-going, semi-non-confrontational personality. In fact, I can't really remember a time where I ever wanted to show any sort of "superiority" in my life. Typically, I just went with the flow and didn't care one way or another about anything. I was sort of numb to the world, I guess, searching for something strong enough to make me feel again before moving onto the next exciting thing. But those thoughts still came up, anyways. I wondered what caused them to surface.

Then, I realized it. _The game._ It was the game. In a virtual reality – well, any reality alternate from the one I was used to, really – I was no longer the person «outside». Here, I had a clean slate, completely separate from my real self. I could do whatever I wanted, act however I felt, be whoever I wanted to be. I could be different from everyone else, I could stand out.

The idea of change, the thought that I had the power to completely rewrite who I was… I'm not sure what anyone else would have thought of having that kind of control. Maybe they'd be scared, maybe reluctant. But once I saw that I had it, I took it.

-:-:-:-:-:-

That was the moment where the nameless, average, unimportant man I was began to die. Who I was before was slowly being forgotten, gradually giving way to someone I had no idea I could become. In place of who I had been grew an infamously darker, stronger, and crueler man. With this process going on, maybe what happened next was only inevitable...

-:-:-:-:-:-

I brandished my blade, and changed my stance suddenly. I rotated so my right foot was slightly farther forward than my left. Both legs were straight, back tall, and right shoulder slightly forward. I raised my sword and pointed it at the girl before me. Just then, I saw it. That flash in her eyes, full of a desire, a _hunger_ for what she was about to do. But, it wasn't as eager as it had been before. Now, there was a hint of un-surety.

I looked back up at the clock, counting down the last remaining seconds.

_7...6..._

Ferra readjusted her grip on her sword, her face becoming solid and unreadable.

_5...4..._

Daruku coughed and stepped back from beside me. "Good luck, hero," he said, jokingly.

_3... _

I smirked. Maybe I could have been a hero before. But there was no turning back now. I'd played that part in way too many video games. I was beginning to get a little sick of it.

_2..._

I tightened my grip on my sword. A new perspective, a new identity; that was why I was doing this. I wanted to be different than before. I _would_ be different. I'd be great, I'd be powerful.

_1..._

I would be unstoppable.

_DUEL!_

Ferra unexpectedly leapt forward, shouting as her sword began to glow a deep blue. I was barely able to dodge the skill, leaning back as the arc of her sword barely missed my head. She paused momentarily, frozen by the «Post Motion» effect.

Had I been better prepared, I could have used that time to begin a counter-attack in response, while she couldn't block or dodge. However, I was busy trying to regain my balance after moving so fast to avoid her strike. I stumbled back a few steps before I caught myself and brought up my sword. Just in time, too, as Ferra had regained control over her body again. She swiped downwards, barely giving me any time to block. Just as fast, she brought it back up again, forcing me to jump backwards to avoid her strike. The tip of her blade grazed my chest, taking a good two or three percent off my already lowered health.

Time seemed to slow for a moment as I watched her weapon pass my face. For an instant, I saw every detail, every pixel on its length. Ferra's face was twisted in a sadistic kind of smile, her eyes still holding a glint of that famished look, as if she was desperate for this fight. Was she an adrenaline junkie? No, a thrill-seeker, perhaps? No, that wasn't it either. So why was she so excited and eager?

Maybe she was like me. Maybe it wasn't that she was excited about the _fight_, per say, but about its conclusion. Yeah, that's gotta be it. That look, filled with such a killing intent you could almost feel it coming off her. She, like me, wanted nothing more than to kill something.

Time began to speed up again. Her sword finished its pass, and brought her arm above my head. I was too far away to counter, so I simply waited for her to charge at me again. As she lunged forward, I brought my sword up, deflecting hers above my shoulder. A look of surprise donned on her, quickly followed by a snarl.

At that moment, I forgot that this was just a game. Everything around me faded away, until all that was left was me, my opponent, and our weapons. Ferra furiously attacked me, and I frantically blocked and dodged. When she used a sword skill, I would dodge and begin a counter, and would relentlessly strike until I used a skill, and the tide would turn once again. Slowly, we whittled down each other's health until she was deep into the yellow, and I barely in the red.

I had no idea how long we had fought for, but it was long enough for both our patience to be running thin. Ferra swung down from above, I parried from below, and our blades locked. She leaned in, giving another feral growl. I pushed my weight into my blade, using both hands for added strength. Our swords clanked and scratched against each other, neither one giving way to the other. Then, Ferra's slipped back a little, and I saw my chance. I pushed forward as hard as I could, trying to break her hold.

Suddenly, she drew her blade back and stepped to the side, causing me to lose my balance. She brought her knee up into my stomach, stopping my fall and bring me deeper into the red. My legs felt shaky as I looked up just in time to see her fist slam into me. I slammed into the ground, barely able to move and my HP mere pixels away from being extinguished.

I tried to stand, but legs refused to hold me. I collapsed to my knees, breathing heavily, my eyes closed as I tried to will away the headache wracking my brain and reorient myself. The pain wasn't too great, as SAO's «Pain Absortion» effect limited it to tolerable levels, but the feedback from striking the ground so hard was enough to make me lose my sense of gravity. Though, before I fell over from the disoriented feeling, I felt something grab onto my hair and yank me upwards, forcing me to sit on my heels. When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Ferra standing over me, sword poised to strike.

"Looks like you weren't as tough as you thought you were," she said, that sadistic smile once again on her lips. "Oh, well. Let this be a lesson to you." She leaned in, her voice merely a whisper as she spoke three short words, enunciating and emphasizing each one very, very clearly.

"You. Are. Weak."

I think something inside me must have snapped when she said that, because I don't really remember what happened next. When I came to, Daruku tried to explain what happened to me, but I found his story hard to believe.

According to my partner's account, Ferra leaned back again, raising her sword to lop my head off. I sat there, staring ahead and looking dead to the world. Just as she began her swing, however, my face hardened and I brought my hand, which had somehow kept a grip on my sword through my beat-down, upwards, deflecting her sword. With her reach extended and her sword arm awkwardly across her chest, I slashed down again, severing her hand and bringing her into the red. While she was confused and focused on the stump where her arm used to be, I moved in and wrapped my foot behind her knee and stomped, forcing her down. My free hand grabbed her hair as I moved behind her, and I forced her to look up at me.

Daruku described my face as void of emotion at this point, cold and unfeeling. We stared at each other, she horrified and frozen in terror, I menacingly towering over her. She whimpered, probably wondering what would happen next, or maybe terrified at what she thought I would do. Maybe she was simply afraid of _me_, after pulling a stunt like that.

I ignored her fear, not even phased by it. With her looking up at me, eyes full of fear, I slowly drew my sword across her throat. Because there was no blood in this game, a long, thin crimson line appeared on her neck instead. Small polygons seeped out from the wound, briefly floating on the air before fading from existence. Ferra's body began to shake uncontrollably as her HP gradually dropped the last remaining points. By the time the entire length of my blade crossed her neck, she had run out of health. As I took my sword away and let go of her, her shaking suddenly stopped. Her body lifelessly fell to the ground before shattering into a million polygonal pieces. Throughout it all, I stood there, still emotionless.

Just as the "WINNER" announcement appeared, I broke out of my stupor. I looked at the rewards window, confused. Was the fight over? Had I won? Then, I thought about the last bits of my memory, and my face scrunched into a bewildered frown. Where was Ferra? How had I escaped my enemy's grip? Why wasn't I dead?

I turned to Daruku, who simply stated at me, slack-jawed. "What just happened?"

My partner continued to stare, but he picked his jaw up off the floor enough to complain "I was just about to ask you!" He then proceeded to recount my "unbelievably awesome but super scary" snatch of victory from the jaws of defeat.

When he finished telling his tale, we stood silently for a couple seconds. As the breeze picked up, gently waving the grass of the plain, I looked out towards the horizon. A hundred meters above me was the light purple ceiling of the first floor - or rather, the bottom of the second floor. Following the uneven surface, a massive tower jutted downwards to connect with this floor, forming the «Labyrinth» that one had to clear to reach the next layer of the castle. It was a little past 5:30, and the small strip of sky that could be seen was red with the light of the sunset. For a moment, I could forget everything that just happened and become lost in the virtual beauty of this world….

The world, however, seemed to be against me taking such an action. The window chimed once again, reminding me of the fight and its apparent outcome moments before. As I accepted the duel rewards from the menu before me, I tried to absorb everything Daruku just said. Had I really done all that? Had I really been so cruel? Something inside me said that I must have, otherwise I would be back in the «Starting City». That enough was proof that Daruku was telling the truth. I had – brutally – killed a woman I had just met. Logically, I knew she would have respawned back in the city by now, very much alive, but the thought still stuck.

I wasn't entirely sure how to respond to this new development about myself.

Whether fortunate or not, I didn't have much time after that to think about it. A loud noise like an alarm bell sounded, making me and Daruku jump at the noise. Before we had a chance to comment, however, we were each surrounded by a pillar of blue light. Beyond its walls, the field around us slowly faded out of existence.

"A forced «Teleport»?!" shouted Daruku, confused. Oh, so that's what this was. Maybe there was a special announcement, or an event hosted by the GM's?

As I wondered these things, the light suddenly pulsed with an incredible force, blinding me. Then, as quick as it came, it disappeared, and I was plunged into darkness.

-:-:-:-:-:-

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><p><strong>So glad that's over now.<strong>

**Sorry this chapter is out so late, it took forever to write (last week I finally got to where this chapter ends). Then I ended up writing nearly 2,000 words extra, so I decided to split the chapter. If all goes according to plan, I should have the next chapter up real soon, as it's already nearly finished. But, as I said before, no promises on the time of release.**

**Don't forget to review, follow, or favorite if you like it! If anything just leave a review of constructive criticism or something, so I know what to improve on. Those reviews help me to write better and faster, meaning better chapters coming out sooner.**

**Anyways, see ya next time!**


	3. The Death Game

**Screw it. Screw it all.**

**Oh, why hello, reader! I didn't notice you there, ehehehe.**

**I've spent the entirety of today (yesterday, now. It's past midnight) writing this darn story. I wrote from the beginning of Kayaba's speech all the way to the end in that time. 5,000 words. In twelve hours. Gah, my brain hurts so much right now.**

**So while I try to cool off, enjoy reading the next chapter of _More Than a Game_.**

* * *

><p>-:-:-:-:-:-<p>

**November 6, 2022  
>Timestamp: 17:30 (5:30 PM)<br>****SAO Service Date: 1**

As the blue light faded, my surroundings became clear again. However, this wasn't the plains lit with sunset anymore. A large road paved with stone, medieval streets surrounded by streetlamps and a huge palace radiating a dark light a fair distance away up ahead, all things I immediately recognized from when I first put on the Nerve Gear device.

This was the starting point of «Sword Art Online», the central plaza of the «Starting City».

What was different between then and now was the sheer number of people crowded into the area. Every last one of them, without exception, was uncharacteristically attractive. Beautiful women, handsome men, all with assorted hair colors and equipment. Even though most stood over me and my barely above average height, I could see enough people that I guessed everyone on the server was here. All ten thousand players, all in one place.

For an instant, a deafening silence filled the area. I looked to Daruku, who was just a few inches taller than me, and noticed him looking around the area as well, his face hard and obviously worried. Just as his eyes found mine, it seemed the silence broke. Mutters of, "What's happening?", "Can we log out now?", and "Can't they take care of it quickly?" spread throughout the people. Daruku and I continued to stare at each other, confused at their words. What did they mean by "Can we log out now?" Couldn't they log out before? Was something wrong with the game?

The murmurs slowly grew into annoyed growls and angry shouts. Things like "Is this a joke?" and "Get the hell out here, GMs!" were the loudest and most common of them.

The shouting was suddenly broken by a single player, who pointed to the sky and shouted "Ah… look up!" Daruku and I, along with 9,997 other players, automatically followed the stranger's advice. Suffice to say, none of us were expecting what happened next.

The ceiling of our floor was literally checkered in red announcements. On the "black" tile was written "WARNING" and on the "white," "System Announcement."

Two questions floated in my mind. The first was simple. What the hell is happening? I immediately answered that with the obvious. Something was wrong. That was why people were complaining, why there was a warning sign, and why there was an announcement. The second, however, wasn't so simple. Why is all this necessary? Why couldn't there just be a simple message announcement or something to deal with whatever problem there had been. It wasn't so big that there had to be such a theatrical display of GM power to get it across, was it?

Boy, was I wrong.

While I had been thinking these things, the plaza had gradually gotten quieter, until once again the silence had returned. However, this silence was filled with eagerness and anticipation, rather than the crushing void that had been all our combined confusion.

My reverie was suddenly disturbed by a very strange event unfolding before my eyes. From the middle of the checkerboard of red, something thick and red oozed out from the seams. Instead of falling to the floor, like gravity dictated, it coalesced in mid-air into the form of a tall red hooded robe. Inside it was empty. I could easily see the inside of the robe. There were no eyes, no mouth, no face, no body, nothing. Just emptiness, just shadows.

"A GM…" Daruku whispered. I nearly gave a sarcastic rebuttal at the obviousness of it, but I was still too awed at the being ominously floating above the plaza. I felt as if my heart – along with most of my other internal organs – was retreating deeper into my body, anything to get away from the twenty meter tall robe and whatever it had to say or do.

Then, the right hand of the huge robe slowly, heavily moved its hand to silence the players. A pure white glove appeared from the folds of the long sleeve. But the sleeve, like the rest of the robe, was disembodied, seeming to move of its own volition.

The left arm slowly lifted upwards, as well. With its two empty gloves spread out in front of all ten thousand players, the being spoke in a low, calm male voice.

"**Players, I welcome you all to my world."** His voice boomed across the plaza. Slowly, he lowered his arms. **"My name is Kayaba Akihiko. Right now, I am the only person who can control this world."**

"What…!?" a player in front of me shouted, becoming rigid.

Even I, a player from outside of Asia, knew how much weight that name carried. Kayaba was world renowned for his genius, both in the gaming industry and in quantum physics. He was the creator and development director of SAO, and also the designer of the Nerve Gear that we – the players – were all currently using.

Other than that, not much was known about him. He liked to keep to himself and stay out of the public eye, but the media had its way of scrounging up information that people didn't want to surface. So the question was, why was he revealing himself now, when he had been so quiet during other projects?

The empty hood moved on with its speech, ignoring the speculation and questions of the players below. **"I think that most of you have discovered the fact that the log out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug; it a feature of «Sword Art Online»."**

"A… feature?" another player ahead of me muttered. I quickly opened my menu, trying to confirm Kayaba's words. There it was. Where there would normally be a "LOG OUT" option was simply a blank spot.

"**Until you get to the top of this castle,"** Kayaba continued, **"You cannot log out of your own free will."**

Although the warm fall sun was still beating down on me in the evening light, it felt as if the air suddenly dropped in temperature. I felt something grip at my heart, tightening around it as fear began to spread through me. There was no way to log out, no way to escape. I was trapped, just like I had been before I came here.

"…**also,"** our new warden explained, **"the discontinuation or dismantling of the Nerve Gear from the outside is strictly forbidden. If these thing are attempted…"**

The pure, empty silence that followed was overwhelming. It wasn't a tentative, nervous silence like before, this complete void of sound was soul-crushing.

The empty hood seemed to darken for a second, and the hood tilted forward slightly, giving the impression that his next words were very, very serious. He spoke slowly, his voice rumbling and echoing across the open space we stood in. **"The signal sensors in your Nerve Gear will emit a strong electromagnetic pulse, destroying your brain and stopping all basic functions of the body."**

He paused to let that sink in. The wind died, and a deathly aura hung over us all. I tried to wrap my mind around what the apparition had just announced. If we tampered with the hardware, turned it off, or tried to remove it, our brains would fry, and we'd die. That was his message.

Around me, people began to mutter quietly, much calmer than expected. No one shouted in anger, no one screamed in fear. Either they were all confused over the message, or they simply refused to accept it.

One of the players who spoke earlier lifted his hands to his head, grabbing at something that wasn't there. "Haha…" he laughed dryly, "What's he saying? That man, has he gone nuts? He's not making any sense. The Nerve Gear… it's just a game. Destroy our brains… how is he going to do that? Right Kirito?" He turned to the man next to him, his voice cracking at the end. Kirito, however, said nothing, simply staring back with a look of confusion and denial.

The man blinked before finally responding. "…theoretically, it's possible, but… he must be bluffing. Because if we pull the plug on the Nerve Gear, there's no way it can emit that sort of a strong pulse. Unless there's some form of battery with a huge storage capability… inside…."

"There… is one." The first man said, his voice and expression hollow. "Thirty percent of the gear's weight is in the battery. But…" He shook himself, his tone changing to one more desperate. "…that's totally crazy! What if there was a sudden power outage or something?"

Then everybody would die, I thought. However, Kayaba's disembodied avatar had a slightly different answer than mine.

"**To be a little more specific, dislocation from an outside source of electricity for ten minutes, being cut off from the system for more than two hours, or any attempt to unlock, dismantle, or destroy the Nerve Gear. If any of these conditions are met, the brain destruction sequence will start. These conditions have been made known to the government and the public through mass-media in the outside world. On that note, there have been several cases where the relatives or friends have ignored the warnings and tried to forcefully get rid of the Nerve Gear. The result…"**

There was a short pause as Kayaba took a breath.

"**Regretfully, two hundred and thirteen players have already exited this game – and the real world – forever."**

Silence, followed by a long, thin scream. Most, like Daruku, couldn't believe it, or like myself refused to believe and stood slack-jawed. Some had wry smiles on their faces, probably thinking that this was all some big prank by the GM's.

My knees began to shake. I stood my ground, however. Daruku, on the other hand, fell to his knees, his arms going limp, and tears began to fall out of his eyes. The same thought ran through both our heads.

Two hundred and thirteen dead players.

Suddenly, an image of Ferra appeared in my mind. Was she one of them? I searched the crowd, desperate to find her face. Was she young enough that her parents had pulled the plug on her, unknowingly and innocently killing their daughter so that she could come down for dinner? Was she older and married, had kids, and one of them had removed her helmet so that they could play with her before going to bed? Was she still alive, or was she…?

"…don't believe it… I don't believe it." Kirito muttered, looking lost in his thoughts.

His partner, who had at some time fallen to the floor, was slowly losing his cool. "He's just trying to scare us. How could he do such a thing? Stop kidding around and let us out! We don't have time to play along to your sick opening ceremony! Yeah…" His voice got shaky all of a sudden, dropping a few decibels. "This is all just an event. An opening show, right?"

However, our jailer's solemn and serious tone dashed away any thought of this being an elaborate prank. **"Players, there is no need to worry about the bodies that you have left on the other side. As of this moment, all TV, radio, and internet media are all repeatedly reporting this situation, including the fact that there have been numerous deaths. The danger of having your Nerve Gear taken off has already all but disappeared. In a moment, using the two hours I have given, all of you will be transported to hospitals or similar institutes and be given the best treatment. So you can relax... and concentrate on beating the game."**

"What…?" Kirito whispered.

Beat the game, my ass. I wanted out of here. I didn't care what my job was, I didn't care what the company would say. When I see that log out button, I'm pressing it.

"What are you saying!?" Kirito shouted, followed by a few murmers of agreement from the surrounding players. "Beat the game!? You want us to play around in a situation like this!? THIS ISN'T A GAME ANYMORE!"

Then Kayaba Akihiko, as if he were focused solely on the player in front of me, said in his monotonous voice, **"But I ask of you all to understand that «Sword Art Online» is more than just a simple game. It is a second reality…. From now on, any form of revival in the game will no longer work. The moment that your HP reaches zero, your avatar will be deleted forever, and at the same time your brain will be destroyed by the Nerve Gear."**

My eye was drawn to the large gray bar in the top left corner of my field of vision. A finger's width – barely even fraction – of the bar was colored red. As I focused on it, the numbers 23/456 overlaid it.

Hit points. My life force.

If it ever reached zero, I would die. The Nerve Gear would fry my brain, killing me instantly.

Again the image of Ferra popped into my head. My eyes widened and I sucked in a breath, causing Daruku to look up at me, his eyes red and his face covered in lines of tears.

I really had killed her. When I dropped her health to zero – no, when I asked her to duel me in a Total Loss game – I had sentenced her to die. She never respawned, her plug wasn't innocently pulled. I had killed her, and she was never coming back. I looked down at my hands, horrified. They didn't even seem like mine anymore, they were covered in red, sticky blood. I wiped them on my pants, but the stain didn't come off. It was unbelievably strange, seeing my hands covered in something that wasn't there, feeling as though they weren't mine, yet still they were attached to me.

Despite everything in me that was rejecting what Kayaba said, I knew it was all true. Ferra was all the proof I needed. I fell to my knees next to Daruku, clutching my hand and staring at it, haunted by my previous actions.

My partner put his hand around my shoulders, which I leaned into and cried. I bawled, feeling as a soul-crushing regret and horror filled my gut. I had killed someone. I was a murderer. The thoughts only brought on more tears, ones that I couldn't hold back no matter what. Daruku cried with me, though not as hard as I did. I think he understood what I was going through, or at least he'd guessed. For a guy, his grip was just a little loose, though I attributed that to the fact that he still shocked at Kayaba's monologue.

As he held me there, the most surprising thought passed through my head. My tears stopped for a moment, and Daruku quietly hiccupped and sobbed in the silence. I looked at him, at the tears trailing down his face, and I thought, I never want anyone to hurt like I did. The pain of killing someone, it was too much to handle. I resolved in my mind that I would do everything I could to make sure that no one had to kill in this world. I would prevent that kind of pain from ever spreading into anyone's heart. Especially my partner's.

How am I supposed to do that? I didn't know. As my thoughts raced to find a practical solution, only one ever really came to mind. I would do it. I would kill them all, I would do all the killing. Whenever it happened, when the time came, if someone needed to die, it would be my hand that ended them. Not Daruku's, not Kirito's, not his partner's, not anyone else's, mine. That way, no one would feel their soul tearing apart, like mine did.

"**Players,"** The empty hood stated, **"there is only one way to be freed from this game. As I have said before, you must get to the top of Aincrad, the one hundredth floor, and defeat the final boss that resides there. All players still alive at that time will be immediately logged out of the game. I give you all my word."**

At that point, even the crying stopped. The silence, rather than being crushing, was instead piercing. Fear was on the wind, flowing through every last player as they looked up at the billowing cloak looming over them.

Kirito's partner was the first to speak. "Clear… all one hundred floors!?" He shouted, raising his fist to the sky. "And how do you want us to do that? I heard that getting up was crazy hard even during the beta testing!"

Daruku nodded his head, unable to speak. So it really was that hard? Did that mean there was no chance that we could escape? Was our situation hopeless?

No, monsters and other mobs weren't as hard to fight as other players. People were unpredictable, and were smarter than anything the system could throw at me. Systems were built on patterns which, once recognized, were easily predictable. If I could resolve to kill people, however hard it would be, I could kill a few mobs.

However, I kept it in the back of my mind that there were only ten thousand people on the server, and a potentially infinite number of «enemies» the server could spawn.

At this point, I had ceased to doubt Kayaba's words. No prank, however crazy or elaborate, would go on for this long, or be so intense. However unreal it felt, I had accepted that I was no longer playing an innocent videogame. This was now something like a Hunger Games. It was – without a doubt – a game, but it was a game with my life at stake. In other words, this was a death game.

I could no longer log out. I can't go back to my family, or to my room. The only way I could do that was when… _if_ someone defeated the boss on the highest floor before I died. If my HP reached zero before that then, I was dead. Unless the system broke or glitched out, in which case there was no telling what might happen.

In the field where I had fought Ferra, I had accepted that this reality would be the one in which I would remake myself, where I would become stronger and more powerful. I would forget who I was before and become someone completely new, someone worth living. At that point, this world had become a second reality to me. It had only been reinforced by my vow mere moments ago. This world was real, the people were real, and the pain was real, too. This was my only reality, now. Or at least, the one I was focusing on.

As if to reinforce my thoughts, the looming red cloak swept its right hand theatrically, garnering the attention of everyone present with its emotionless voice. **"Then I will show you evidence that this is the only reality. In your inventories, there will be a gift from me. Please confirm this."**

Daruku and I, still on our knees, both swiped our thumbs and forefingers downwards, bringing up our menus. In sync, we pushed the item button on the menu to find a single item in our respective inventories.

My partner pressed another button, causing the object to materialize in his hand. Without looking to see what he had created, I mimicked his actions and held out my hand. Light seemed to flow into my palm for a moment before a twinkling bells sound effect played and the object dimmed, revealing a small, rectangular hand mirror.

There was nothing special about it. All I could see was my avatar's plain face, a tribute to my laziness when creating it. I cocked my head towards Daruku, who at first was confused. Then, as a look of fear crossed his face, he was suddenly engulfed in a white light.

Immediately after, avatars around me also began to disappear into the strange phenomena. Soon, I too was caught in the brightness, surrounded by blinding white all around me. A few seconds later, the light faded, and everything reappeared the same as it had been before. I was still sitting on the ground, Daruku sat beside me. Nothing was noticeably different than before.

Except, two things were very, very much different.

The first was that the face in the mirror before me was not that of my avatar. Short brown hair that flipped up in the front, a big forehead, brown almond-shaped eyes, and a slightly bulbous nose with a bump on the arch. The chin that jutted out slightly, the rounded jaw, the face a little on the thin side…

It was my real face, the one that I had spent the last thirty-or-so minutes rejecting, along with everything else from my old life. What did this mean? If I were to change, and do everything I planned to do in this new reality, then I would do it where everyone would know my face, know who I am. When we escaped, they'd know who to look for, and then I'd really be in trouble. But I had made my decision, already. Real face or not, I would still become the man I wanted to be.

But if my face had changed, did that mean that everyone else's had too?

It was about this time that the second difference struck me. Daruku's hand began slowly sliding off my back. Except, it was the big, slightly muscular arm it had been before. This one was a lot thinner, and felt delicate as it drew across my spine. When the hand drew across my back, it sent a shiver down my spine. The palm was surprisingly soft, and the fingers were thin and – dare I say it – dainty.

I looked at the person next to me, a guess as to what I would find already set in my mind. Where Daruku had sat before, someone else now took his place. Long blonde hair fell over their thin shoulders in strands. Deep blue eyes stared back at me, completely shocked, along with a thin, rounded nose and slightly pointed chin. The face was just a little wider than mine, but not by much.

In essence, where a heroic knight had once sat there was now a damsel.

"…Shit." She whispered, her voice low for a girl, but definitely feminine. Not at all the commanding, inspiring voice I had become accustomed to hearing from my partner.

"Daruku?" I hesitantly asked. With all that had happened so far, my new friend actually being a girl was fairly low on the list of strange things that'd happened today. However, it still managed to throw me for a loop.

She slowly lifted up her hands in front of her, looking as if she was trying to calm me down. "N-Now, Shaw… I-I can explain –"

She was cut off when I grabbed and hugged her. I felt her tense up under my touch. She probably hadn't been expecting me to grab her out of nowhere. "Thank God it's you." I said over her shoulder. "For a moment there, I was worried I'd lost my partner."

She stilled again before slowly relaxing and returning the embrace. After a second, I let go, and we both sat there awkwardly for a few seconds, not knowing what to say. I eventually got up off my knees and offered my hand to Daruku, who took it. Now that we'd gotten over our own little bit of drama, I noticed everyone around us was still undergoing the process of shock and denial that we had just finished.

"You're Klein!?" Kirito shouted at his partner as he said "You're Kirito!?" For a moment, the two stared at each other for a moment, shocked at the turn of events.

"…ah, right!" Kirito said. "There are high density signal sensors in the Nerve Gear covering our whole head. So it can tell not only how our brains look, but our faces too…"

"B-But," Klein stuttered, shocked. "How can it know how our bodies look like… Like how tall we are?"

Looking around, it seemed like the average height had dropped by a few inches across the board. On top of that, the general roundness and horizontal length of the populace had increased as well. How had the device figured all that out?

"Maybe…" Daruku muttered, apparently listening in to the conversation as well. "Maybe it was the calibrations?"

"Ah… wait." Klein spoke up again, preventing Daruku from continuing. "I bought the Nerve Gear just yesterday so I remember, but there was a part of the set-up… what was it called, calibration? Well anyway, during that bit it had you touch your body here and there, maybe it was that…?"

Kirito nodded. "Ah, right… that's what it was…" He seemed to be immediately drop back into his own quiet little reverie.

"He's right," Daruku confirmed, just loud enough for me to hear. "Calibration measured how much you moved when you reached for certain parts of the body, in order to make the sense of touch accurate within the game. In a way, the Nerve Gear has data about everyone's exact figures saved inside its hard drive…" She frowned. "With that info, it's possible to create exact digital replicas of our real-world bodies, down to the millimeter."

I began to catch up with her train of thought. "So, in order to make this place a reality…"

She nodded. "He made perfect copies of us and brought death into the game in order to make us believe it."

"Why?" Kirito's partner once again asked the question we were all thinking. "Why the hell's he doing something like this…?"

Kirito just pointed to Kayaba, saying, "Wait a moment. Likely he'll answer that in a bit anyways."

As if in response to the player's words, a solemn voice emanated from the empty cloak. **"You are all likely wondering 'why.' Why am I – the creator of both the Nerve Gear and SAO, Kayaba Akihiko – doing something like this? Is this a sort of terrorist attack? Is he doing this to ransom us?"** A hint of empathy seemed to seep into his words, though with his monotone style of speech I couldn't tell for sure.

"**None of these are the reason why I am doing this. Not only that, but now for me, there is no longer a reason or purpose in doing this. The reason is because… this situation itself was my purpose in doing this. To create and watch this world is the only reason I have created the Nerve Gear and SAO. And now, everything has been realized."**

His voice reverted back to its metallic, emotionless state. **"…thus concludes the official tutorial for «Sword Art Online». Players, I wish you luck."**

The word "luck" echoed throughout the plaza, gently fading away as the red robe rose into the air, slowly disappearing into the crimson sky. When the bottom hem of the attire had finally risen into the ceiling, the system messages that had covered it disappeared without a trace.

The sunset reappeared, bathing the area in a yellow-orange light. The wind began to move again, bringing with it the background music that the NPC orchestra played when one was in the town. Everything was at it had been before the announcement.

And yet, so much was different.

It wasn't long before the truth dawned on the other players, eliciting the long-awaited proper reaction. The city was filled with angry, distraught noises. Yells, clamors, shouts, curses, begging, and screaming. So much screaming. The people that had changed from gamers to prisoners in an instant fell to their knees clutching their heads, waved their arms in the air, grabbed at each other, or started to swear loudly.

Daruku was currently doing both of the latter. She grabbed my arm, swearing Kayaba's name and cursing him and anyone related to him as she dragged me out of the mass of bodies and onto a nearby road heading away.

Me? I was using the arm not being pulled on to protect my ears from bleeding. I had never heard such desperate, primal screeches in all my life, and they really grated my ears. I followed my partner as best I could, but I was thankful she kept a hold of me. I'm certain we would have been separated if she hadn't because of all the bodies between us and the exit.

When we finally escaped the crowd, we ran a bit farther into town before stopping by an NPC stand and taking a huge breath. For a minute or two, we simply stood there, catching our breath. The shopkeep gave us a few odd glances every once in a while, but returned to his work when he saw that we weren't in any shape to buy anything just yet.

When Daruku finally caught her breath again, she moved up to the stand and asked for a few health potions. After using her Col earned in the field a few hours earlier, she handed me two of them. I took them, grateful, before chugging them down. My HP gauge slowly began to fill, and I let out a sigh of relief at the sight. "Thanks," I said, staring at the now empty vial in my hand.

"No problem." She replied, still slightly winded. She cleared her throat and crossed her arms. "Have any plans?"

"For what?" I twisted the vial around, wondering how much Col it would cost to keep a few of them handy.

"For game night," she said, deadpan. "It's your turn, remember?"

I looked up at her blankly. "I'm going out when I can, and I'm going to help clear a couple floors before…" I stopped myself, deciding that no one needed to hear about my slightly psychotic plans involving killing.

Daruku looked slightly suspicious, but let the subject drop. "Any plans for tonight?"

I shook my head. "Not going so soon, I think I need a night to think it all over first."

She just nodded. "Let me take you to an inn here in town. Better we get it now than after someone else has taken all the rooms. You can sleep there before we head out tomorrow." She was obviously taking this much better than I had thought she would. She definitely didn't fit the stereotypical blonde role that I had assumed she'd take.

She led me down a few back alleys until we found ourselves inside a tavern tucked away in a little used part of town. We bought separate rooms adjacent to each other, and said our goodbyes as we walked into our respective rooms.

The room itself was nothing spectacular. A small, three by three meter room with a bed in one corner and a chair in another. The walls and floors were plain and unremarkable. The bed itself simply was a mattress with a white sheet and a brown blanket, along with a white pillow. The chair, the most elaborate thing in the room, was square, straight-backed, and had red leather cushions.

I flopped myself onto the bed, feeling the feathers inside poke into my back as I lie there. The pillow was hard and cold, as if it had never been used in all its life. Thinking about it, it probably hadn't, as this was still the first day of SAO's official service. It was far different from my old memory foam bed and fluffy pillow back home.

Despite the slightly uncomfortable feeling and drastic change in accustomed sleep-gear, it wasn't long before my eyes began to grow heavy, and my mind slowly drifted off towards sleep. I didn't need to think about everything that had happened, or worry about what was going to come. Tomorrow was a new day, filled with trouble and peril. But that was a whole night away. Now I was just going to focus on tonight. And tonight, what I really needed was a good night's sleep.

-:-:-:-:-:-

* * *

><p><strong>Cool, Jacob... we're cool...<strong>

**Alright, hooray! That's out of the way! So glad I could get that out before the week finished. Now I can focus on getting ready for school when the break ends next week. Yay.**

**Felt better about this chapter than I did the last. Except for the final paragraphs after they escape the crowd. Those ones I'm not so confident about. But otherwise, I had a blast writing this.**

**Also, I'm trying to stick as close to the LN's as possible, so while some parts may seem redundant or expositional, it's because I'm trying to keep the original integrity of the story. Also, my friend who did NOT read or watch SAO is reading my story, so for her sake I have to add that stuff in.**

**Thanks again for reading! Remember to follow, favorite, or leave a review! If anything, please review. It helps me have more confidence and write faster.**

**Well, then, until next time!**


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